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COPYRIGHT DEPOSfT. 



PEACE SONNETS 



BY 

JESSIE WISEMAN GIBBS 



♦ 



PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 
VILLISCA, IOWA 
1915 






Copyright, 1915, by 
JESSIE WISEMAN GIBBS 

Printed for the Author by 

THE ABINGDON PRESS 

NEW YORK 



JUL 26 1915 
©CU406867 



He is our peace. — Paul 



How is it that ye do not discern this time? — Jesus 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 

A word of explanation is necessary to give the 
reader the view-point of the various sonnets in this 
collection. The first twenty of them were written 
over a year before the great war began, or was 
dreamed of on this side the Atlantic, the initial 
number having been a contribution to the first dis- 
cussion as to whether the canal tolls dispute should 
be submitted to arbitration. The twenty-first number 
was written in view of possible conflict with Mexico, 
at the time when American war ships were first sent 
to Vera Cruz. The remaining thirty-six were, as 
can be seen, inspired by the war. 

A few of the sonnets here presented have already 
appeared in the religious press, or in the author's 
former volume of lyrics, entitled "Overtones." 

j. w. g. 



my dear Country, thou canst never dare 
Deny the Court of Peace ! Thou, who art hope 
Of the world's weary nations ; 'neath the slope 
Of whose spread wings they seek a sheltering care 
Like to the care of God! Thou, who must share 
Christ's saving travail for their sons, who grope 
Through toil to thee ; must in thy members cope 
With all their war, in strength of naught but prayer ! 

Nay, but thou must be first to own that Court 

And set it as a crown upon the brow 

Of Christ, the King of Nations; first must thou 

Confess his heavenly rule thy last resort, 

Even as it is : so shall He judge thy cause 

And stablish it in his unfailing laws ! 



II 



Why trust we yet in enginery of war, 
Country of my heart, who have a King 
Who has no need of any such a thing? 
Who makes us free within, and doth abhor 
Aught save the gift of life and freedom, nor 
Is willing one should perish ? Think we the sting 
Of death to 'scape, with vain imagining — 
To deal therein, and still his life implore ? 

Lo, the hour has struck for peace, and we have heard 
Christ in our heart speak "Peace !" It is thy hour, 
My Country! shrink not its regnant power, 
But stand forth in the strength that Christ doth 

give- 
Speak peace, that thou and all the lands may live, 
Ere thou and they all perish by the sword ! 



Ill 



So shalt thou own thy Savior, King, and find 
His power; so shall the nations own how great 
Thy youth and virtue, that could slough the weight 
That crushed the world, and dare be free and kind; 
So shall the peace of his untrammelled mind 
Eule thine own inward strifes of social hate; 
So shalt thou plant that universal state 
Wherein his love shall be at last enshrined. 

So shalt thou bring again the angels' song; 
So shall the star be seen again in Heaven ; 
So shall the nations look to it and long 
For the salvation to God's people given; 
So shall the Savior promised to all earth, 
Through thy pure travail have his modern birth ! 



IV 



Thou shalt not find Him till thou be so great 
To give Him to the world: his truth, his peace, 
Are known in sharing; evermore increase 
From man to man, from loyal state to state; 
For they may not be bound, but still must wait 
Fulfillment till the last despite shall cease 
And all men freely share them. Yet if these 
Things seem a mystery, know, before too late : 

If states of thine may not lift up the hand 
Against thee ; if thy striker may not reach 
To strike with steel; if tribes that in thee stand 
May war no more, but dwell as friend with friend; 
Then thou must practice this that thou dost teach 
And say among the nations, "War must end !" 



10 



Lo, now, how Christ doth overcome the world! 

Yet we, who bear his name, are feard of it; 

Yea, tremble, and conform ourselves to fit 

Its will, who should be transformed and unfurled 

In power to do his righteousness, who hurled 

The planets in their orbits, and who lit 

The spark of life within us, infinite, 

To blaze when systems are in ashes curled ! 

But if we dared be free in Him, and say 
Among the nations, "He is King indeed, 
"And by his truth alone will we be freed!" 
There's not a kindred the blue ocean laves 
Would dare to stand before us, more than they 
Who went to capture Him with swords and staves! 



11 



VI 



Ye nations of the earth, have ye not said, 
i<r We will increase onr strength with ships and guns" ? 
Yet now do they consume your little ones, 
And while ye think to make your bullets red 
In brothers' blood, in your own house lie dead 
Your children; for God chastens so his sons, 
Bringing the ill they practice whence it runs 
Back to recoil at last on their own head. 

But if ye once had known your Father, God, 

Ye could not lift the hand against your brother; 

And if ye once had felt his chastening rod, 

Would leave to Him the vengeance; if ye knew 

The mighty fortress He hath given to you 

In these, your children, ye would ask no other. 



12 



VII 



Behold the missionaries of Christ's cross, 

That go before the merchant ventures ! These, 

More than all ships of war, bring in the peace 

Of the world, and what they spend is never loss. 

Think, if we gave the heathen but our dross 

Of vice and war-craft, how their hordes would seize 

Our weapons to despoil us, and appease 

With smell of our spilt blood their lustful joss! 

Nay, we must give them Christ, or on our head 
Their sin shall be, and God unto their strife 
Shall give us up to chastisement; our pelf 
Shall profit us no more, when we are dead : 
For selfishness doth still defeat itself, 
And sacrificial love is fount of life. 



13 



VIII 

I sing the soldiers of the coming wars, 

The wars of God and man, of common weal 

And individual glory. Not with steel 

Nor for destruction, pass their shining corps 

Where all our modern tumult sweats and roars; 

But girt with faith, love, prayer, — how e'er they feel 

The iron in their own souls — to save and heal, 

And Christ leads on, who all to God restores! 

These be thy heroes, my Country ! They 
Shall wear henceforth thy laurel and thy bay! 
Thou shalt not give again the crown of thorns 
To Him who is thy Savior, nor the ray 
And aureole of glory that adorns 
His brow to them that pillage and that slay ! 



14 



IX 



? T is not enough, my Land, that thou shouldst cry 
To Christ to save, but thou must crown Him King 
Ere He can save thee; thou must dare to fling 
Thine all on Him and trust Him, live or die, 
Ere thou canst find his power, or live thereby. 
Behold, how beautiful his feet, that bring 
Good news of peace ! Behold Him in the spring 
Of glorious day, descending from on high! 

Hail Him, my Country ! Crown Him, whom so long 
Men dared deny the crown ! Whom God doth crown 
In Heaven before the angels, who with song 
Acclaim Him King forever, casting down 
Their diadems before Him, choosing Him 
Before all glory in themselves grown dim! 



15 



Hail Him ! For it is He who left his throne 
In glory and came down to earth and men, 
To lift them with his own hands up again 
Into that heavenly light that was his own 
Before the world was ! Hail Him, who has known 
Our sorrows, shared our burdens, borne our pain, 
In his own body — yea, our sins amain — 
O'ercoming all in his love's might alone ! 

Hail Him victorious! Hail Him conqueror 

And King forever ! Own Him with thy whole 

Heart, my Country, even as the soul 

That lives by his great life ! Have thou no shame 

To speak of Him before the kings that war, 

But let the whole earth hear thee praise his name! 



1G 



XI 



Crown Him with many crowns, United States! 
A crown for every one — one crown for all! 
Crown Him, ye thousand cities, great and small! 
Crown Him, ye villages and farms, whose gates 
Teem with the future ! Crown Him, Magistrates, 
Governors, President! Before Him fall 
And vow yourselves the vassals of his thrall ! 
Crown Him, each soul that for God's Kingdom waits ! 

Call Him our Counsellor, our mighty God, 
Our everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, 
Whose Kingdom in our hearts can never cease; 
Who plants the life of God in us to grow 
And bring forth healing for the nations — 
He shall bring down all Heaven upon our sod ! 



17 



XII 

Proclaim Him, Stars and Stripes, upon all seas; 

Till men shall say throughout thy voyagings, 

" ? Tis Christ's undying love the banner flings 

"Forth in its red ; his purity decrees 

"In its white ; in its stars of Heaven, his truth. With 

these 
"Great glories wrapt, their eagle soars, who brings 
'* Christ's healing in the spreading of his wings, 
"Where farthest rivers pour, or oceans freeze !" 

thou shalt live, my Country, and be free, 

By Him alone, whose power alone can save ! 

And if thou lose Him, thou hast but the grave! 

And if thou fail Him now in craven fears, 

And fail the world his love would save through thee, 

Then God must try again, a thousand years ! 



18 



XIII 

Lo, how we are entangled in the coil 

Of precedents ! How we hedge up our way 

With Heaven-high walls of what men do and sa\, 

Until we see not God! How we embroil 

Us with conformity — an endless toil! — 

Till in the labrinth we are spent and stay, 

Hopeless to be delivered, afraid to pray, — 

Trusting at last what doth our strength despoil! 

But God's not so ! For then He lets us die 
And calls a child and sets him in the midst, 
And a new nation. So of old Thou didst, 
God ! So dost Thou till thy Kingdom come ! 
How long, Lord, how long? And shall we lie 
Us down so mazed and spent and overcome? 



19 



XIV 

So shall we die, my Country; yea, and thou, 
That gloriest in thy strength and stretchest thee 
As a young giant forth from sea to sea — 
So shalt thou perish, if thou choose not now 
Thy God against the world. For if thou bow 
To the world's idols, thou shalt surely see 
The bitter doom of their captivity 
And drink thy sin in that despairing slough! 

But now, whilst thou art young, is time to choose 
As for the lands, let them do what they will; 
But as for thee, with all thy heart, choose God; 
For none can stand against his righteous rod, 
And they who seek its shelter cannot lose 
The comfort, the green fields, and waters still. 



20 



XV 

Rejoice, my Land, and glory in thy youth ! 
Be thou not as the nations, dead in sin; 
But be alive to God, renewed within 
To know his will and overflow in ruth 
Unto the world's end. Suffer not the tooth 
Of time to prey upon thee, nor begin 
To feel thy tides set inward, but still win 
A higher freedom through a higher truth ! 

God bless thee ! God be in thee ! God set on 

Thy courts his heavenly glory; give Christ's face 

To shine on every child, in every place 

Of thy dominion; give thee righteousness 

And peace, within, without; give, through his Son, 

All power to thee to curse not, but to bless ! 



21 



XVI 

America ! New World ! Empire of Man ! 

Hope of the nations! Land of destiny, 

Wherein the whole world looks to be set free ! 

Think'st thou to bind the races with a ban 

Of peace, who hated since the world began? 

For black, red, brown, white, yellow, meet in thee; 

And wilt thou teach them all one fealty? 

And be to all one mother, if thou can! 

Hope not to do it by any earthly thing; 

But only by Himself, who is the King 

Of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Almighty Son 

Of God and man, whose love hath power to bring 

All men of every race and clime in one 

Unto his Father, till his will be done ! 



22 



XVII 

for the prophet's vision to discern 

The things of thy dear peace, to read for thee 

The inner secret of all history ! 

for the will in thee to look and learn! 

What were those mighty forces that could burn 

Up nations into empires ? — Look and see : 

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and he, 

The fierce Mogul, Napoleon, — each in turn! 

Their spirits gone, how soon their realms decayed! 

And shall we take the world to us and think 

To stand, one body, with no soul arrayed 

Therein as King of all? The devil enticed 

Us to this thought, who would that we should sink 

To ruin with the rest, — but crown we Christ! 



23 



XVIII 

Think you if those six thousand murderers 
Who wrought their deeds of blood in us last year 
Had had the spirit of Christ, we had had fear? 
Think you if those uncounted worshippers 
Of lust and mammon which our age incurs 
Through ignorance of God, had dared to rear 
Their bloody idols up amongst us here, 
If we had had his spirit in us, sirs? 

Hear, my Brothers! Iron bars nor laws 

Shall ever save us, but his secret art; 

And love of Him is more than all police 

And ships of war to keep our realm in peace; 

And this is our great policy, to cause 

Each child to know and love Him in his heart ! 



24 



XIX 

that the perfect faith would issue here ! 
That scales of doubt and selfishness and pride, 
That blind our eyes, would fall before the tide 
Of rising light wherein Christ doth appear 
Alone, supreme, divinely near and dear 
To each and all; until we did abide 
In Him, one body, instinct and glorified 
By his great life and love, that cast out fear! 

Christ, Desire of Nations ! God and man ! 
We long for Thee! Our heart and flesh cry out 
For Thee, till Thou be formed in us, our Son 
And Savior, our Immanuel ! We can 
But seek Thee till we find Thee, till all doubt 
Be vanquished, and thy glorious Kingdom won! 



25 



XX 



Lo, thou, my Land, art God's new Israel, 
And He has held, close in his counsels furled, 
Till thy full time, this Canaan of the world, 
And called thy children forth therein to dwell 
From the world's bondage, that Immanuel 
Might reign in thee at last, and throngs that swirled 
About thee should return through all the world, 
Bearing his blessings forth, that in thee well. 

Thy federal law is his great Kingdom's law; 

Thy dream of one in many, his dream of 

The race; if He reign in thee and draw 

All men to Him, his glorious life and love 

Shall loose the law, the dream, in life, — send forth 

His liberty of love through all the earth ! 



26 



XXI 

If we must fight, my Country, let it be 
For sake of love and peace and duty plain ; 
Let history not say we filled with slain 
For vengeance or vainglory, vauntingly, 
One field of earth; but sorrowing, as he 
Who smites his son to guide him and restrain, 
And as the world's Redeemer, for our gain, 
Suffered and died upon Mount Calvary. 

So shall our soul be clear of blood, save the 
Pure blood of his great travail, which He lays 
On us to bear with Him in these last days ; 
Our sons who die in such a cause shall be 
The blessed martyrs of his Kingdom's rise 
And come again with Him from Paradise. 



27 



XXII 

Ye peoples who profess to worship Christ, 

Ye kings who claim Him for your Overlord, 

Ye parliaments who hear his saving word, 

Ye souls who live by what He sacrificed, — 

In what an evil hour are ye enticed 

Of this world's Prince to lift the murderous sword 

Against each other, — ye, whose treasures horde 

A love that for the world's peace had sufficed! 

Are ye not traitors to your Sovereign King, 
Whom He would bring in one, to do this thing? 
Who then shall save you when the heathen laugh ? 
Hope ye yet in the sword, to live thereby ? 
The sword, wherein ye trust, shall turn and quaff 
Your blood, and by it ye shall surely die! 



28 



XXIII 

I said in haste, "0 for the famine or 

"The pestilence, to make us think on God!" 

I knew not what I said, nor how his rod 

Would smite the nations with this awful war ! 

If we have need of signs, what look we for 

More than this bubbling blood, by blind hate sod, 

Dishonored and cast out on every clod, 

Which should be of Christ's life inheritor ? 

be thou wiser, my Beloved : know 

They live by Him in whom his spirit dwells 

Of faith arid love ! They triumph who dare show 

The godlike deeds thereof ! But Satan quells 

Their valor, and they perish in defeat 

Who doubt with doubt and hate with hatred meet! 



29 



XXIV 

How shall we pray for them, God, who say 
They are of Christ, and do the works of Cain, 
Who mind no more that they are men, nor chain 
Within their bosoms the wild beasts of prey, 
But let them forth to ravish and to slay, 
Putting their trust in Satan and his train? 
Yet are we of their kindred and their strain — 
For their peace and our own, we can but pray! 

Yet not for peace alone, but righteousness 

And truth, wherein are peace that shall endure, 

And love, which is alone the perfect cure 

Of all their ills and ours, the potent law 

Of Heaven's Kingdom, that must surely draw 

The nations to its sway, ere Thou canst bless. 



30 



XXV 

We made such outward show of being fair, 
Were so untroubled, so self -gratified, 
We liked no more to hear what foul germs plied, 
Of the old plague, within us, nor were 'ware 
How sore we needed a Physician's care, 
While the hid ulcer gathered in our side ; 
But now it hath burst forth and we can hide 
No more our shame, which to the world is bare. 

Gone is the lying refuge, the false calm 
And pride ! In utter helplessness we cry, 
"Is there in Christendom no healing balm, 
"And no Physician there with saving skill? 
"God of all mercy, hear us, ere we die ! 
"Send Him to us, that we may do his will!" 



31 



XXVI 

I see through this most sacrilegious feast 
Of lust and blood, a hand come on the wall 
Of modern palaces and write the fall 
Of kings; for from the greatest to the least, 
They have been weighed in balances and ceased 
From honor, having been found wanting, all, 
Bringing the world again to brutish brawl: 
Therefore shall they be cast out as the beast, 

Until they know that God is more than they; 
And these their kingdoms God shall take away 
From them and give to Him who rules by right 
Divine of love, and by its perfect might; 
Who leads his subjects into peace, not strife, 
And suffers death, Himself, to give them life. 



32 



XXVII 

Though thou must suffer, my Beloved, yet 

Stand fast in Christ's great spirit, reaching out 

Strong hands of love and prayer; though they flout 

Or wound thee, never falter, nor forget 

Thy Savior, who is more than thou, but let 

His Voice ring through thy voice with instant shout 

To pierce the maddened tumult and the rout, 

"I am your peace ! I paid its bloody debt !" 

The world shall hear that Voice ! Believe and love ! 

Fail not thy Lord nor them in this dread hour ! 

He shall not fail thee, but will give thee power 

To be new-born into his Kingdom. They 

In after time shall call thee servant of 

Our God, and bringer of his Kingdom's sway! 



XXVIII 

The earth is God's, the continents and seas, 
The islands and the inland streams and lakes, 
Each gloomy fern and golden fin that shakes 
In water, each glad wing that beats the breeze 
Of air, all ores and gems that melt and freeze 
In hidden ducts of mountains; for He makes 
Them all, and all the seeds of life, and wakes 
Anew each year the beasts and grass and trees. 

And ye, Nations, do but hold in trust 

A little while this wealth of his for all 

His children, and should in one council call 

On Him for strength to minister such stores 

In honor ; but ye slay the heirs and thrust 

Them forth, to seize the inheritance for yours! 



34 



XXIX 

Above the noise of battle and the cry 

Of wounded and of dying, the vast groans 

Of wasted provinces, the gathered moans 

Of widows and of orphans, through the sky 

I hear a Voice of lamentation high 

As Heaven, a Voice of love and tears whose tones 

Bewailed of old the city's doomed stones, 

That would not own her King when He was nigh. 

How oft' would I have gathered you, States, 

Races, in my saving Kingdom's fold, 

But ye would not!— But still without the gates 

Slew Me, nor knew your day of visitation, 

Desiring this day, whereof I foretold 

That it should bring such wrath and desolation ! 



35 



XXX 

Has Christ failed, then, in Europe? Nay, but her 

Philosophers, her diplomats, her courts 

Have failed Him, trusting not his heavenly forts 

Of faith and love, nor daring from them stir 

In valor of his cross, to minister 

His life. Therefore for refuge she resorts 

To fear and hate, and all her host reports 

In camp of the Eternal Murderer. 

Christ cannot fail, but He is still the Prince 

Of Peace. The Prince of this World faileth since 

The world began, and he shall always fail; 

He is the Enemy and Christ, the Friend, 

Who by his love shall mightily prevail 

And of whose Kingdom there shall be no end. 



36 



XXXI 

Think we that those on whom this tower of ill 

Descends, whose blood is mingled thus in vain 

With hopeless sacrifices, who so strain 

To bring forth good from evil, and fulfil 

Their own destruction while they waste and kill, 

Think we that they above all lands profane 

God's will, and so in chastisement obtain 

His judgment, from which we are scatheless still? 

I tell you nay, but except we repent, 

Ourselves shall likewise perish : for we feed 

Bread of our children to the war-god's greed 

And with unholy mammon are defiled, 

And turn away the face of our own child 

From Christ, and know not our impoverishment! 



37 



XXXII 

America, behold how the world hangs 
This day upon thy virtue — thine alone; 
How Europe reaps the whirlwind she hath sown 
Of hellish hate, that unto Heaven clangs, 
Mocking her God and Savior's travail pangs 
For men's redemption ; how the heathen groan 
In darkness by such darkness overblown, 
Meeting therein the serpent's poison fangs! 

purge thyself! fall before the cross! 

clasp it to thy breast, and count but loss 

The will and pride of men, if Christ appear 

In thee with love that God's own bosom gives, 

And never can be quelled, but giving, lives, 

And brings earth's blackest night all Heaven's cheer ! 



38 



XXXIII 

God bless our President ! In such an hour, 
When warring nations, blind with tears and blood, 
Overmastered by fierce passions as a flood, 
Confront the last dread terror in the power 
Of darkness that on all their lands doth lower, 
And see his face among the stars that stud 
The sky, serene, above the stormy scud — 
God make of him a refuge and a tower ! 

As thou hast hope in God, America, 
And in his Kingdom, pray for him of yours 
Who stands before the nations and implores 
That hope; that heavenly grace and stamina 
May be in him, to make the matchless worth 
Of Christ, the King, appear upon the earth! 



39 



XXXIV 

The minds of kings are dark ; their thoughts are cast 
In molds of a dead era, when they traced 
Their way to thrones through wars, and ever braced 
Themselves thereon by wars; they still hold fast 
To that unholy refuge of the past, 
Not knowing how a new age hath effaced 
Their covenant with death, and firmly based 
The strength of nations in Heaven's life, at last. 

But we are of the future ; we are free ; 

And looking from the future's height, we see 

A new United States, of Europe, rise 

Out of her ashes and her agonies, 

And bid her hail, and cry the King of Kings 

Hasten to gather her beneath his wings! 



40 



XXXV 

No kingdom built in force can ever stand, 

For force is outward and can never reach 

The heart, but still the heart will rise and teach 

Its impulse and its passion to the hand ; 

But God hath laid his Kingdom, deep and grand, 

In love, and there's no language and no speech 

Where the still voice of love may not beseech 

And win men's hearts to its divine command. 

Who, then, is the world-statesman who foresees 
That Kingdom come, and brings its reign of peace? 
'Tis he who takes Christ's cross and hides it deep 
In human hearts, while nations wake and sleep, 
And the supreme world-wisdom is that of 
His lavish and uncalculating love. 



41 



XXXVI 

The soul is infinite : the whole world lies, 

Of peace and discord, hope and fear, praise, blame, 

Heavenly glory and infernal shame, 

Folden within its possibilities; 

And he who scorns the spirit is not wise ; 

For out of it all strength and weakness came, 

And it alone survives the wreck and flame, 

And on it still the social pillars rise. 

And I have seen Heaven's Kingdom fully come 

Within a soul disordered and accursed 

As this old, sin-sick, warring world, at worst, 

Bringing it forth with power to a new birth 

Of life and peace ; and this is all my sum 

Of hope to see that Kingdom come on earth. 



42 



XXXVII 

It seems that this so solid-looking ground 

Is but a thin crust, yet, o'er fires of Hell 

That rage still in earth's womb, and none can tell 

What moment they with rushing, roaring sound 

Will burst abroad before him and confound 

The blessed day with smoke and ashes fell, 

Foul fumes and molten streams unstanchable, 

And he and all his hopes therein be drowned. 

For earth's old harlotries still bring forth death 

And men will ne'er be safe upon the earth 

Till she be purged of that infernal birth 

And yield her wholly to the Heavenly Sun 

Of Righteousness, who since the world begun, 

Breathed in her Heaven's life and Heaven's breath. 



43 



XXXVIII 

Of old when men were children and conceived 
Of God as one who loved their little tribe, 
While other tribes had other gods, to gibe 
And jeer at theirs, and hate in Heaven grieved 
Men's souls to dare the slaughter they believed 
God's will for earth, war was a boast the scribe 
Could chronicle and poets might ascribe 
Glory to him who most despite achieved. 

But now men know one God and Father of 
Them all, one Elder Brother, whose dear love 
Is Heaven's law for earth : war is revealed 
A deed most blasphemous, profaning sky 
And earth, a most unnatural crime, the yield 
Of perfidy and infidelity. 



44 



XXXIX 

This war is from beneath and from above, 

Not of the nations, only, but that same 

Old conflict of the Beast, whose other name 

Is Self, and of the Christ, whose name is Love; 

And men and nations are the spoil thereof; 

For the Beast comes to kill and steal and maime, 

And Christ to heal, to ransom and reclaim, 

And men in ranks of each have ever strove. 

It is the last fierce onslaught of the Beast, 

For now the world sees his jaws drip with slime 

Of its heart's blood, and feels his talons tear 

Its vitals, and its miseries increased 

Past suffering, till turning to Christ's care, 

It trust his saving banners for all time. 



45 



XL 



Build no more ships of war, my Land, no more : 
For we must fight upon Christ's side in this 
Great strife; but if we cower 'neath guns that hiss 
With fires of Hell, and trust its cannon's roar, 
We take the arch-fiend for our commodore, 
And are already lost, and shall not miss 
To be dragged down by him to the abyss 
Wherein the nations perish at our door. 

Heed not thy lying prophets, who are of 

This world; have faith in God, and thou shalt build 

Ships of salvation, and they shall be filled 

With armies of the blood-red cross of love, 

And thou shalt send them east and west, to win 

Christ's peaceful victories o'er death and sin. 



46 



XLI 



We can perceive, at last, the world is one, 
And we shall save ourselves when we have saved 
The nations, and the way to life is paved 
Through travail and through sacrifice, and none 
Shall see God's great salvation 'neath the sun, 
Save in Christ's dauntless spirit, that once craved 
To give men life, and through the unseen braved 
The fear of death, and life immortal won. 

Choose, then, my Land, if thou wilt bear his cross 
And live, or bear the sword and die. With Christ 
We suffer, but we reign for evermore; 
With Satan we shall surely suffer sore 
And miserably pass from loss to loss 
And perish with all nations he enticed. 



47 



XLII 

'Tis well we should sit down and count the cost, 
If we be able, with our paltry ten 
Thousand, to go against a force of men 
That number twenty thousand in their host; 
So, if we see no hope, ere they have crossed 
Our borders, we may send with haste to ken 
The grim conditions whereon we again 
May live a little while, ere all be lost. 

Sure we can never do it in the might 

Or power of our own hands, but by the Son 

Of God, and by his Spirit, if we have 

But faith, the battle is already won, 

And the great prize, which is the blessed salve 

Of peace for the whole bleeding world, in sight. 



48 



XLIII 

If we would dip our pens in Heaven's fire, 

They would be mightier than the swords of kings; 

If we would pray the prayer of faith, that brings 

Unfailing answer to sincere desire, 

If we would grant God's Spirit to inspire 

Our souls with rapture of eternal things, 

We should lift up our voice as one that sings, 

And walls should fall, and camping hosts expire! 

For God hath sought a nation He could use, 
One to delight in Him and do his will, 
But all were faithless, and in hopeless tears 
Received the due fulfillment of their fears; 
Last He seeks us — Spirit that endues 
With might, grant us his purpose to fulfil ! 



49 



XLIV 

The tide of time is at the point to turn: 
The kingdom of this world, that has prevailed 
Upon the face of the whole earth, has failed, 
And the great deeps of human passion yearn 
Toward a Kingdom whose pure glories burn 
Eternal in the Heavens, — that availed 
Of old to draw to it the souls it hailed 
Out from the welter of their brief sojourn. 

Those souls of men are grown a multitude 
Innumerable, out of every race, 
People and tribe and tongue, and the strong pull 
Of that new Kingdom has laid hold for good 
On the world's center, till with saving grace 
And knowledge of the Lord all earth be full. 



50 



XLV 

It is a time of peril and of power, 

A day of crisis, big with destiny ; 

But the decisive blow of history 

Shall not be dealt with bullets that devour, 

Nor by the lands that use them, but in our 

Free soul, where Christ and Satan mightily 

Wrestle for spiritual victory, 

And we shall say who triumphs in this hour. 

The Past and Future, Hell and Heaven, Christ 
And Satan, meet in the arena here, 
And a great cloud of witnesses appear 
In Heaven and Hell and all the world, to see 
If we have courage that of old sufficed 
To overcome the world, and set men free. 



51 



XLVI 

If we must die (for life is not more dear 
Than our most holy cause) then let us die 
For Heaven, not for Hell, truth, not a lie, 
And fall into God's arms, who shall appear 
To raise us from the dead. Yea, let our seer 
See God, and let him pray, till we descry 
Those chariots and those horsemen of the sky 
Who are our only hope, and our last fear. 

I know a warfare calls for lives and blood, 
Whose soldiers bear no weapon, but the cross, 
And think him braver who with ardor high 
Goes forth therein than regiments that toss 
Their lives to the grim chance of guns. God, 
In that dear warfare let me fight and die ! 



52 



XLVII 

We stand above the nations, and our cause 

Is not our own, but God's, and God hath blessed 

Us mightily and given us his rest, 

And set his Kingdom in our heart, that draws 

The peoples to our bosom from the jaws 

Of that destructive kingdom, east and west, 

That preys upon its children, — that our breast 

Might feed the world, our mouth speak Heaven's laws. 

And thus saith God, America, "If thou 
"Wilt trust in Me, and put the unclean thing 
"Away from thee, and take my Son for King, 
"And let his Kingdom in thee be unfurled, 
"Thou shalt fear nothing, but shalt witness now 
"His victory of love o'ercome the world !" 



53 



XLVIII 

I know the faith that overcomes the world, 
Whereat the Prince thereof, who perpetrates 
Impious war, doth tremble, and the gates 
Of Hell, that have decoyed the lands, impearled 
Like gates of Paradise, are rent and hurled 
To the foul pit they gloze, and human states 
Confess God's law of love, that animates 
His Heaven, and surely is on earth unfurled. 

It is the faith of Christ, the Son of God, 

Savior of souls to life forever young, 

Before whose blood-blest rood the blood-curst rod 

Of kings must be laid down; who comes, even now, 

And every eye shall see Him, every tongue 

Confess Him, every knee before Him bow ! 



54 



XLIX 

Hark how each king and emperor declares 

That God is on his side — how all appeal 

To God to help them murder, waste and steal! 

But none appeals to Christ, of whom God swears, 

"He is my Son ; hear Him !" and not one dares 

Assert that Christ is on his side, to feel 

The filthy passions of his fiendish zeal; 

And Christ's pure name is not in all their prayers. 

The god they cry to, he is of their own 

Imaginations, yea, a god outgrown, 

And impotent to help as wood or stone; 

But as for the eternal God Christ came 

To show, they know Him not, and to their shame 

They take upon their lips his awful name ! 



55 



This last colossal crime of Christendom 

Is fruit of her apostasy and sin 

Of unbelief, for Satan enters in 

When Christ goes out: there is no vacuum 

In spirit, more than flesh, but evils come 

On heels of our denials and begin 

To work a vast destructive woe wherein 

We cry again for faith's palladium. 

Thou art not guiltless of this great transgression, 

My Country ! God give thee to discern 

The meaning of this time, to humble thee, 

To own thy sin, with all thy heart to turn 

To Christ, ere thou be forced to make confession 

Of Him at mouth of Hell's artillery ! 



56 



LI 



War is revelation: in an hour 

That men know not, seeds of selfishness, 

Fear, suspicion, envy, they caress 

In their bosoms, grown to unknown power, 

Burst before the world in bloody flower, 

All whose dripping petals reconfess 

That old revelation alterless, 

"Hate is murder," spoke by Truth's Avower. 

War is judgment: from the ripened grain 

It doth pluck the tares at last for burning; 

And above it God, the Judge, is turning 

To destruction bloody men and vain; 

And its sentence is as old as breath 

On this blood-soaked planet: "Sin is death!" 



57 



LII 



War is the mailed hand of criminal states 

That strike the helpless down and bind the free 

And build an arrogant supremacy 

Of selfish force; but the just land that waits 

For righteousness and loves God's law, and hates 

Iniquity, builds up his courts, and she 

Shall not be put to shame therein, but He 

Will send his angels forth to guard her gates. 

And she shall prosper and shall have a new 

Supremacy of service, and the word 

Of God shall go forth from her mouth to all 

The lands and not return again unheard, 

But they shall come from east and west to view 

Her great salvation and to own Christ's thrall. 



58 



LIII 

What one war settles may another war 
Unsettle, and what has been won by force 
May so be lost again, and in the course 
Of dealing death do nations die; therefore 
War settles naught, but God is Governor 
Who made all men one flesh, not to divorce 
Them from each other, and their last resource 
Is love, and Christ alone is Conqueror. 

But that is settled which is settled right, 
And they are free from fear who trust the might 
Of the Almighty, and they that deal in love, 
Though they may agonize in blood and tears, 
Shall never die, but all his power shall prove 
And live and reign with Christ a thousand years. 



59 



LIV 

I take the slur of "peace at any price" 

And wear it unashamed with Him, who, when 

He was reviled, reviled not again, 

But prayed for brutish men who cast their dice 

Upon his blood-stained garments, whose foul cries 

Mocked his great gift of life their narrow ken 

Perceived not, rendering up his soul for men 

To God, a free, obedient sacrifice. 

I count Him strong, who rendered good for ill, 

Love for despite ; I count He overcame 

The world, and proved the glory of God's will, 

The invincibility of faith, the claim 

Of love to love ; I reckon He indeed 

Was free, and by his spirit men are freed. 



60 



LV 



It is a day of wrath and reckoning 
For Europe, but for us a day of pause 
And testing. Out of every race, as straws 
Sucked by the wind, or as the needles swing 
To the pole, we came to share the banqueting 
The Wonder Worker spread here, and because 
Our flesh is filled, we hail Him with applause 
And would take Him by force to make Him King. 

But He withdraws and cries, "'Tis not enough 
"Ye eat my loaves and fishes ! I am Bread 
"Of Life ! Ye must eat Me ! My spirit's puff 
"Must be your breath of life! Ye must pursue 
"My joy — must clasp the cross whereon I bled, 
"If ye would have Me to reign over you !" 



61 



LVI 



How vainly have we cried "Peace ! Peace !" where no 

Peace was! How vainly shall the nations patch 

A partial, unenforced peace, and snatch 

A little respite ere the whole world flow 

Together in unutterable woe 

Of self-destruction; if all men attach 

Them not to Heaven's Kingdom, to o'ermatch 

All principalities and powers below! 

Know, my Country, this democracy 
Thou boastest in, is but a half-way house 
Between the City of Destruction and 
The Holy City ; and thou canst not stand 
Therein, but must go back in infamy, 
Or forward and the Lamb of God espouse ! 



62 



LVII 

The sword has pierced my bosom and its pain 
Consumes me so that outward sights grow dim, 
But inwardly my soul has sight of Him 
Who came from God unweaponed and was slain, 
In whose great death is all our life made plain. 
all God's lightning-girded cherubim 
Could but have brought us to destruction grim- 
He saved us; through his death we life attain! 

Therefore hath God exalted Him on high. 

And thou, my Country, that hast dared to love 

Humanity and peace, so must thou die 

To self and sin and look to God above 

To bring his Kingdom through thee and to raise 

Thee up therein immortal to his praise. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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